Australia 0 - Kuwait 1

Kuwait took one big step towards qualification for the AFC Asian Cup
2011 when they defeated Australia 1-0 in Canberra on a cool Thursday
night with just over 20,000 looking on.

In front of the record crowd for an International football match
involving Australia in the Nation's capital, the A-League composite were
out-played and out-thought by a team which had come on a mission.

The result leapfrogs Kuwait over Australia and Indonesia into second
place in Group B, behind fellow middle-East contenders, Oman with
Indonesia third and Australia in the unenviable position of holding up
the group.

Yet, it was not the fact that the fancied Australians lost through a
counter-attack, but that the Kuwait team deserved the result and had
more of the opportunities in front of goal, and if it was not through
lack of composure, they could have doubled, or even tripled the
scoreline.

The match also displayed the fact that the Australians were ill-prepared
for such an encounter, some of the players having only two or three days
of training with their team-mates prior to the game. The Kuwait team had
a week's camp in New Zealand with games the previous week against
Oceania Champions League clubs Auckland City and Waitakere United.

"I thought we learnt from our mistakes when we played in New Zealand,'
said Assistant coach AbdulAziz Hamada. It certainly showed that Kuwait
were the team who played as a team and not as individuals trying to play
as a team.

This is a superb result for the young Kuwait coach, Goran Tufegdzic. The
Serbian-born coach, a graduate in sports management, took over the
position from his mentor Mohamed Ibrahim, having been Ibrahim's
assistant for four years. The game was his first test, one he passed
with flying colours.

Unfortunately for the coach, he has to wait until the next round in
November for the next round. 'Our plan is to get more motivation for the
next match,' he said. 'Our team came here to try to make a good result.
They did what I want on the field and a little lucky the result came for
us.'

The play commenced with Australia slowly moving the ball around the
defence prior to launching forays, mostly with long balls towards the
head of Matthew Simon. Yet, it was Kuwait who really pushed forward, and
more so with midfielder Talal Alamer. Alamer took four shots within a
five minute period early in the game.

None were on target, yet the first real chance also fell to Kuwait.
Following a poor decision by captain Craig Moore in passing to an
opponent while in his own third, Hamad Alenezi sent a fierce drive that
Australian goalkeeper, Eugen Galekovic could only parry for a corner
kick.

While Australia appeared to be struggling at the defesive end, it was
the frailties of their attacking prowess that was undeniably exposed as
a clear pair of chances, delivered by a goalkeeping error from Nawaf
Alkhaldi, were not taken advantage of. First Archie Thompson watched as
his attempt was cleared off the line and then the follow-up by Tomislav
Pondeljak rebounded back into play from the left upright.

That was to be Australia's one real chance, for the whole game. 'The
thing you have to do is score early, because they have to open up and
try to score,' stated Australian coach Pim Verbeek. 'We had that chance
with Archie and Tom.'

Then with ten minutes left in the half, Kuwait struck the body blow that
would break the hearts of all in the huge crowd. A free kick from the
left by Bader Almotawa floated into the six-yeard box. With Galekovic
firmly stuck on his line and Daniel Mullen too slow off the block,
defender and ex-professional player Mesaed Alenzi snuck in front of the
defender and glanced the ball past the stranded keeper.

The shock from going a goal down saw the Australians dumbfounded and for
the remainder of the half, they could only muster a single semblance of
a shot, a Tom Pondeljak attempt that went through Matt Simon's legs
before being gobbled up by Alhaldhi.

Stern words must have been the commentary from the dressing room, a room
without Pim Verbeek, who was serving the second match of his suspension.
Yes, Graham Arnold was actually in charge of this shambles. To have Pim
face the media at the end, just shows how composed the man is.

The giant awoke and the Australians came out the stronger following the
break and keener to score. Craig Moore had the first, at what can be
attributed to the log of half-attempts, when he stooped down low send a
looping header, from a Matthew McKay corner, into the outreached arms of
Alhaldhi.

Kuwait were happy to sit back and absorb the pressure and then break out
for the counter. Make that explode for the counter, such was their
threat from this type of attack. The opportunites they generated to
improve on the scoreline were far better than anything Australia could
muster at the other end.

By the 60th minute all hope was lost, leadership went out the window,
and long balls were the play of the day. Just hoof another ball towards
the forward. 'After they went to long ball in the second half we tried
to play a zone defence gathering up the second ball,' Hamada explained
after the game, and that tactic worked a charm as nearly all of
Australia's balls were dealt with easily by the Kuwait defence.

It was the group of their speedy and skillfull forwards that was putting
on a show for the spectators. Jumah, Alenezi and Almotawa were causing
no end of headaches for the defence, one that was becoming smaller as
the game went on and more Australians were sent forward.

Almotawa should have done better on the hour. He received a ball near
the half-way and ventured forward with the speed and determination of a
cheetah chasing a stray antelope. He slid through the defence and when,
on the edge of the box, composure was requred, he skied his shot, not
even bringing Galekovic into action.

Alenezi was replaced by Khaled Matar with twenty minutes to go, and the
speedy tall forward enjoyed the freedom in attack, opening up numerous
holes in the pourous defence and generating chance after chance.

In the meantime, Australia's forwards made a few forays in an attempt to
appease the now restless crowd, one that was more interested in the
Mexican wave than what was transpiring on the field. Both Archie
Thompson and Matthew Simon had far post headers, but neither found the
target.

For the remainder of the game, Australia generated a rare poke at, or
near, the target, but nothing that caused any concerns for the Kuwait
keeper. At the other end, only a few inches separated Kuwait from
doubling the scoreline. Matar played a wall pass with Almotowa and
watched in pain as his shot, across Galekovic's goal, rebounded back of
the far post, returning the ball from whence it came, where a matter of
centimeters closer to goal and it would have rebounded into the goal.

The Australians had little to express delight over during the period and
the crowd were only enthused when Alenezi was booked for taking a
theatrical dive in the penalty area. The referee, correctly awarded the
attacker a ten and presented him with a caution for his efforts.

So, what went wrong in this game for the favourite Australian team? That
will be a question that journalists and average punters will be
discussing over the water-coolers of many an office during the days that
follow this debacle.

Verbeek, was very calm at the press conference. 'I am very disappointed
because I think we can play much better than we did tonight. It was a
qualification, so we wanted to win, especially at home because there
were 20,000 people and the field and atmosphere was fantastic.

'But we did not deserve to win the game. Kuwait, defensively they did
very well, were organised well, very compact and did not give us any
space.

'We had to play with fast, eyeball speed and make quick decisions and we
were not doing that.

'The first half the players felt it was too easy, with not a lot of
emotion,' Verbeek summarsied. Then came the second period and it got
worse. 'In the second we played with too much emotion, and lost
organisation. So things like that we have to improve.

'I think in the second half we played with out hearts more than our
head, which is understandable as we have a lot of young players. It is
their first big international so we do not blame them for that.

'We can understand that we have to improve that. You have to stay in
organisation, you have to make chances and you have to take chances and
not start to get impatient.'

Yet, there were underlying problems in Australia's demise, two which
were highly significant, and neither of these could be placed in the
hands of Verbeek or Arnold.

The first lay in the inability to send a quality ball into the penalty
area. Without the service, the taller Australians, at set pieces, were
just pawns watching the better pieces easily move around them and take
charge. It was extremely rare, if at all, that a cross generated a real,
instead of occasional half-chance.

Yet, more important, and we see this through Verbeek's comments as well,
was the fact that there was little or no leadership on the field.
Whether there was too much raw enthusiasm that the likes of Moore and
the extremely quiet Archie Thompsoncould not control, is a question
worth debating. Yet, when experience was needed, all these two could do
was give the ball away, and not show any semblance of the required
leadership.

This has to be a more serious concern for Verbeek and he tries to
recover from the mess that transpired on the deathbed they call Canberra
Stadium. It was here that the Matildas, Australia's women's team was
thumped 5-1 by Italy only a month before.

Fortunately for Verbeek, there are eight months before the hosting of
Oman and an attempt to right the ship, one that may not see Australia in
the finals of AFC Asian Cup 2011.